GOP Senators Call for Stronger Economy Instead of Higher Taxes
TAXES
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
15 April 2008
WASHINGTON — While Americans finished filing their tax forms by Tuesday’s deadline, Republicans in Congress were filing statements slamming the Democratic budget they say would hit millions of people with $1.2 trillion in taxes.
Using the credit crisis and weak economy as talking points, Senate Republicans said Tuesday that Americans need a stronger economy instead of higher taxes.
“Instead of trying to generate more revenue at the expense of the family budget, the Democratic Congress should focus on tax incentives to stimulate the economy, address the housing credit crisis and create jobs,” Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said in a statement issued before a press conference.
Republicans also are attacking the Democratic plan by highlighting the amounts millions of taxpayers will pay beginning in 2010 if the tax plan is included in the budget that becomes law. They point out that each year, on average, 43 million families would pay $2,300 more, 18 million seniors would pay $2,200 more and 27 million small businesses would pay $4,100 more.
“It’s very expensive for the American people to have this Democratic Congress,” Gregg said.
Democrats say the tax increases that would result from letting current tax cuts expire as scheduled are targeted at the rich, though Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said they also would hurt single workers making at least $34,000 and couples earning at least $60,000.
“It makes no sense that they’re rich,” McConnell said.
Republicans have been calling for tax relief to stimulate the economy in light of the credit crisis and the drop in consumer spending. “We should be helping the economy,” said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, adding that tax increases will be a major issue leading up to the November elections.
Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., called for a new tax code with simple rules instead of the current system that changes each year and has different instructions for taxpayers who itemize deductions, those who don’t, and those who pay the alternative minimum tax, which was originally targeted at rich people and businesses eligible for many tax benefits but which now casts a far wider net.
Echoing conservative concerns on spending, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., called for a federal flat tax that would give taxpayers the option of filing a one-page tax return with a 19 percent rate for two years and a 17 percent rate thereafter.
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats assailed the war in Iraq for sucking tax dollars away from the economy. The war has cost more than $500 billion since 2003, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and is estimated to total $1 trillion to $3 trillion or more by the time it ends.
“Taxpayers think their money is going to Washington, but it’s really going to Baghdad,” said Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill., at a press conference.
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